Israel’s Ariel Sharon, buoyed in the polls after forming a new party for a March election, pledged to seek peace with the Palestinians but stood firm on keeping many West Bank settlements. The Israeli prime minister said his departure from the rightist Likud party last week to create a centrist movement meant he would no longer “waste time” battling opponents to his strategy for ending the Middle East conflict. But Sharon, speaking to Israeli news editors, gave little idea how he planned to proceed, except to continue putting the onus on the Palestinian Authority to rein in militant groups before any serious political talks can resume. Certain to anger the Palestinians was Sharon’s reaffirmation that Israel would never give up large settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank. He also said Israel would keep control of the Jordan Valley, where it maintains a string of smaller enclaves, under any future peace deal. If I was a Palestinian I would tell him to stick it up his ass ...... http://www.msnbc.msn.com

Venezuela has agreed to sell heating oil at discount prices in low-income communities in Chicago, New York and Boston. Venezuela's president has decided to expand his Oil-for-the-Poor program and sell cheap oil to the No. 1 superpower of the world. The Houston-based petroleum company CITGO, wholly owned by Venezuela, will begin the program in Boston. Up to 12 million gallons of heating oil will be offered at a bargain price, representing $10 million in savings for locals, according to CITGO. "With this initiative, CITGO is showing its commitment to the U.S. marketplace and to communities where we have a presence," said CITGO president CEO Felix Rodriguez in a prepared statement. "As good corporate citizens, we are making an effort to help those in need." Despite being the United States' fourth-largest oil supplier, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has had a contentious relationship with America. ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=1337463&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

Walking into the highly restricted tuberculosis ward of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Malawi's second city of Blantyre is a lesson in humility. To enter, you need to fill out a lot of paperwork letting the hospital know that if anything happens to you, it is not liable. This takes a couple of hours. Once you're cleared, you get a surgeon's mask and a guide and off you go. Our team did this recently and entered a scene that's the closest thing we've seen to hell on earth. In bed after bed, the dead and the dying lie side-by-side. Patients stricken by advanced tuberculosis brought on by AIDS cough uncontrollably while relatives try to comfort them. ...http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/12/01/btsc.koinange/index.html?section=cnn_world

Mexico says it opposes a US plan to build more fences along the border in order to control illegal immigration. Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said his country "does not believe physical barriers are the solution". President George W Bush announced the construction of more fences in the 3,200km (2,000 miles) border while touring US states earlier this week. About 10 million Mexicans live in the United States and more than four million are said to stay illegally. More than a million are arrested every year as they try to enter the US to look for work. Experts said the migration trend would continue because of the huge wage gap between the US and Mexico. Mr Derbez insisted his country's position over physical barriers was not only in relation to the United States. "Mexico voted against the fence Israel built in the Gaza Strip, and against the fences Spain built in Melilla and elsewhere," he said. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4488624.stm

A husband and wife who waited three months to see what Hurricane Katrina did to their neighborhood finally returned Thursday to find their blue, wood-frame house sitting in the front yard, three 3 feet off its foundation. Louis Phillips and Donna Williams were among those allowed access to the Lower Ninth Ward, the last section of the city to reopen since Hurricane Katrina struck Aug. 29. The Lower Ninth Ward, one of the city's poorest areas, is part of the 40 percent of the city still without power, three months after Katrina hit. Thousands of residences were destroyed in the area. ...http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/01/katrina/main1091642.shtml?CMP=OTC-RSSFeed&source=RSS&attr=U.S._1091642

Two animal handlers who say they were fired for refusing to expose their breasts to a 300-pound gorilla have settled their lawsuit against the Gorilla Foundation on undisclosed terms. Nancy Alperin and Kendra Keller, both in their mid-40s, claimed that Gorilla Foundation president Francine "Penny" Patterson pressured them to indulge Koko the gorilla's "nipple fetish" as a way of bonding with the 33-year-old female. ...http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2005-12-01-gorillacase_x.htm?csp=34